Industrial Chemical Cleaning Comes Through Again
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Our industrial chemical cleaning division has a fantastic reputation for some very specific reasons. One of those reasons is the professionalism they bring to the project. Thompson’s chemical cleaners know exactly the right chemical solution to choose, the correct way to monitor the cleanings progress and the means to find out the level of success generated by the solvent.Another characteristic is their ability to minimize the impact of their chemical cleaning operations on simultaneous facility projects and normal, day-to-day plant operations. Both of these characteristics were on full display during a recent job that our chemical cleaning technicians handled. Designing a Chemical Cleaning Procedure The objective for this chemical cleaning project was to remove scale buildup—specifically, water hardness and iron oxide scale—from a reactor cooling jacket in a specialty chemical facility. The products and process are proprietary, so we can’t get into details on those, but the important thing to know is that the foulant in the cooling jacket was hindering the even and quick cooling of the product following each production cycle. The next cycle couldn’t begin until the reactor had cooled, so the issue was slowing down overall production. Due to the location of the cooling jacket and accessibility issues, hydroblasting with a lance to remove the scale was not an option. Instead, our chemical cleaning experts decided to use a heated, inhibited hydro chloric acid solution for the job. Acid strength and inhibition levels were tested every half hour to ensure optimum acid concentration during the chemical cleaning.
Our commitment to safety extends across all our service divisions. Success Measured in Productivity The chemical solution and cleaning methods selected by the chemical cleaning team were extremely effective. After our team left the facility and the equipment went back online, our project manager followed up to inquire about the results of the cleaning. We were happy to find out that the cleaning had caused a very substantial increase in productivity: The time needed to cool the reactor between production cycles was reduced from over two hours to about 45 minutes. This meant that the next cycle could begin sooner, and over the course of weeks and months, those time savings will translate into many thousands of dollars in increased productivity and profits for the plant. Leaving Things the Way We Found Them Unfortunately, contractors in general have a reputation for leaving debris and trash behind them for the employees of the client’s facility to clean up. That’s not the culture at Thompson Industrial Services, though, and we make it a point to leave each site just as clean as we found it. This was one point made by our client for this particular job when he provided us with feedback; he was impressed that there was no mess at all left by our chemical cleaning team in the area surrounding the reactor and its cooling jacket. This might seem like a small factor, but it reflects the wider and very important culture that Thompson Industrial Services instills across our chemical cleaning, automated hydroblasting, and safe excavation divisions. Prioritizing safety means making sure the entire environment of a cleaning project is clean, safe, and as free as possible of contaminants. And “being great,” as our motto concludes, means doing the best we can do for every client. Positive feedback about our team’s great service and respect for the facility gives us encouragement that we are doing well in this area. The Highest Standards in Chemical Cleaning Our chemical cleaning team’s careful planning, execution, and follow-up in this instance are just one example of how we approach all of our client projects. Safety never takes a back seat to speed, and the decades of experience behind our chemical engineers enables them to make strategic, creative, and innovative choices that benefit our chemical cleaning clients with faster, safer, and more efficient cleanings than their equipment has ever had.
We look forward to hearing from you about your industrial chemical cleaning needs, whether you are looking to accomplish common maintenance tasks more efficiently or discover a solution to a seemingly impossible cleaning problem that has persisted too long.
Press Contact
- Emily Martin
- Marketing Manager
- 100 N. Main Street
- Sumter, SC 29150
- (803) 773-8005
- emartin@thompsonind.com